The California Public Utilities Commission should take an active role on broadband adoption, including by funding open networks and issuing more aggressive speed guidelines, said Preston Rhea, engineering director of local ISP Monkeybrains, at an en banc livestreamed Wednesday from San Francisco. AT&T and Comcast executives described an informational role for the agency to spur adoption as they promoted their own low-cost programs. Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves said programs like AT&T Access and Comcast Internet Essentials lack transparency, and eligibility requirements differ by provider. “We have no jurisdiction to make you do anything. You can’t even tell us ... how many people participate,” she said. She supports discussing “systemic reforms,” including open-access fiber. Incumbents took “a very uncompetitive stance” when they protested supporting ISPs like Monkeybrains, she said. “Competition ... is the solution here.” The commission must find ways to make communications service affordable, since one in five Californians lives in poverty, said Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen. He noted an open proceeding on affordability of utilities including telecom (docket R.18-07-006). AT&T, cable and smaller providers discouraged the CPUC last year from studying broadband in its utility affordability rulemaking. Rechtschaffen wouldn't carve out the telecom industry. Too many lack broadband, especially in rural areas, noted President Marybel Batjer. Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma asked if the agency should write a strategic plan to determine where to prioritize efforts over the next three to five years. The CPUC should revamp the California Advanced Service Fund to provide public open fiber networks, especially in areas with insufficient competition, said Rhea. A 2017 law directed CASF funding to projects providing at least 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds in areas that don’t have at least 6/1 Mbps. Rhea said California should seek 100 Mbps symmetrical. If California were to take public control of Pacific Gas and Electric, as proposed by a state senator last month, it could inexpensively spread fiber across the utility’s infrastructure, he said. Present more information about companies’ low-income programs on the CPUC website, suggested Comcast Senior Director-Government Affairs John Gutierrez, noting the agency already gives adoption grants under CASF. The commission should facilitate more outreach, said AT&T Assistant Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Fassil Fenikile. Price is secondary to lack of interest as barriers to broadband adoption, the AT&T official said. Rhea disagreed.
Washington state’s House Appropriations Committee OK'd 19-14 privacy legislation Monday: the Senate-passed SB-6281 (see 2002280070). The House Rules Committee will now consider the bill.
California Public Utilities Commissioners Lianne Randolph and Genevieve Shiroma met FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and “the need for a path forward for California and other states with broadband programs,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. “Commissioners discussed how California’s state broadband programs can be aligned with the RDOF program to promote bids in California that can cover the high cost of deploying more resilient technologies -- especially fiber -- in rural areas in the state."
An Oregon bill to expand state USF to broadband and extend fees to VoIP and cellphones cleared the Joint Committee on Ways and Means at a webcast Friday meeting. HB-4079 reduces the fee to 6% from 8.5% and would take effect Jan. 1. Oregon had missed out on millions of dollars in broadband support because the state couldn’t put up matching funds, said sponsor Sen. Arnie Roblan (D). Cellphone bills could increase 40 to 60 cents, noted Sen. Lee Beyer (D). Sen. Rob Wagner (D) said he was opposed last year but would vote yes despite lingering “heartburn.” Wagner, whose district includes part of Portland, thinks it’s “a little bit problematic and maybe even perverse that we're talking about an urban-rural divide in this state when the folks that are utilizing cellphones in my Senate district are not people who would be benefiting from this last mile or rural broadband expansion.” No Republicans attended the meeting due to their walkout over a climate-change bill.
State policy matters for expanding broadband, Pew reported Thursday. Most states have broadband programs, it said. “Differences that reflect the political environment, the state’s resource levels, the geography of the areas that remain unserved by broadband, and the entities that provide service.” Measures many states have taken that "are proving effective" include engaging stakeholders; writing a policy framework with well-defined goals and agency assignments; developing broadband plans, funding projects with broadband grants; and frequently evaluating and modifying programs.
Before a key vote Friday on Washington state’s privacy bill, Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Innovation, Technology and Economic Development Committee proposed amendments to the Senate-passed SB-6281. Chairman Zack Hudgins (D) floated one tightening enforcement and removing local preemption. It would give a private right of action, and clarify violations are enforceable under the state Consumer Protection Act. It wouldn’t preempt local laws about facial recognition, or local personal data laws adopted before the state law takes effect. The amendment would make the bill applicable to legal entities that have data of at least 25,000 consumers and get 25% of gross revenue from selling personal data. It’s 50% in the current bill. Ranking Republican Norma Smith proposed in one of multiple amendments to remove a controversial facial recognition section in its entirety. Rep. Debra Entenman (D) proposed to require opt-in consent before controllers use facial recognition on a consumer’s image, and require facial recognition training include information on error rates based on demographical differences. Enforcement and facial recognition have been sticking points, with Microsoft and the tech industry against a private right of action that consumer groups support (see 2002210053). The hearing starts 8 a.m. PST.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and eight other senators urged the Department of Agriculture Wednesday to change a requirement that bars ISPs in rural communities that received FCC Connect America Fund Phase II funding from applying for the Rural Utilities Service's ReConnect rural broadband funding program. “USDA can, and should, fix this,” Wyden and the others said in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. The department “is neither statutorily required to eliminate FCC grant recipients from ReConnect eligibility, nor does it consider satellite service as sufficient broadband service for the purposes of awarding ReConnect funding.” Also signing: Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.; Doug Jones, D-Ala.; Angus King, I-Maine; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; and Tom Udall, D-N.M. USDA didn’t comment.
Frontier Communications is “clearly violating” the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by failing to provide broadband speeds as high as what it promises customers in contracts, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Paul Bailey (R) at a Tuesday hearing webcast from Nashville. The panel voted 6-1 for SB-2851, which designates such failure as an unfair or deceptive practice under the act and allows the state attorney general to assess $5,000 to $15,000 per violation. Bailey cited numerous complaints over the past few years that he said were met by excuses or silence by Frontier. The carrier promised to submit a corrective plan to Bailey by the end of last week, but he never received it, the senator said: “At a time when Tennessee continues to invest in rural broadband, this company is hindering our ability to provide this important service to individuals who desperately need it.” Several states are probing the telco and responding to reports the company might seek bankruptcy protection (see 2002200022). The phone service provider didn’t comment.
Trying to spur rural broadband by removing regulatory oversight of electric cooperatives could have consequences for electric rates, reliability and other consumer protections overseen by the commission, cautioned Maryland Public Service Commission Chairman Jason Stanek at a Senate Finance Committee hearing livestreamed Tuesday from Annapolis. Officially, the commission is neutral on SB-540. Commissioner Anthony O’Donnell urged lawmakers to “think very carefully” about ramifications of removing oversight. Maryland Deputy People’s Counsel William Fields fears deregulation could raise consumers' electric rates. Sen. Malcolm Augustine (D) agrees. The legislation is critical to cleaning up state barriers keeping co-ops from providing broadband service to the eastern shore, said sponsor Sen. Stephen Hershey (R). “If we don’t do this, we have no other options on the table." Rate hikes are less a danger with cooperatives that are regulated by members, he said. Verizon supports the proposal as good for consumers and competition, and Hershey is working on getting Comcast support, he said. The bill would immediately support Choptank Electric Cooperative’s broadband business model, said Hershey and co-op officials. Choptank would be able to start rolling out service in Q1 2021, and within 10 years cover Maryland’s entire eastern shore with gigabit fiber service, testified CEO Mike Malandro. Comcast supported SB-790 at the hearing. It would direct the Department of Information Technology to waive resource sharing agreement fees for last-mile broadband projects in unserved areas and exempt private entities from DoIT project reviews if they have a separate right to access to install communications lines and facilities in the right of way. DoIT last summer misinterpreted a 1996 law and started to charge resource-sharing fees to ISPs, said Comcast Vice President-State Government Sean Looney. That stopped work by Comcast, Verizon and others in the right of way for eight months, he said.
The California Public Utilities Commission discussed how the FCC can work with states as it establishes its data collection on broadband mapping, in meetings with aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and Wireline Bureau staff on Feb. 13, said filings posted Tuesday in docket 19-195. CPUC supports an FCC proposal to use broadband data from states, localities and tribal governments to help validate ISP-provided broadband data. The state agency recommended its federal counterpart require that broadband serviceable location fabric information, "including its underlying location and parcel data, should be open, public, and non-proprietary." Industry wants to keep some data proprietary, citing competitive reasons (see 1909240005). The CPUC asked the FCC to include agricultural areas in its broadband serviceable location fabric framework, to support precision agriculture.